Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Congratulations to our friend Gene Bowen on his receiving the National Child Labor Committee Lewis Hine Award. This award is given to those individuals who do outstanding work on behalf of the health and safety of children, especially those who are at risk. The award could not have gone to a more deserving recipient. We are always amazed by the energy and commitment Gene has to making the world a better place.

I was in LA recently attending a seder with Gary Stewart, former head of A&R at Rhino who is now head of A&R at iTunes. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging with him. Gary was the king of reissues at Rhino back in the day and was responsible for turning people on to tons of amazing legacy music during the 80s and 90s. He produced many of my favorite box sets including 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968'. Gary is a close mutual friend of Steve Greenberg's, whom I've had the pleasure of doing a lot of work for over the years.

Speaking of which, I'm deep into the vocal production of Diane Birch's debut album for Greenberg's S-Curve Records. This is the first project I've worked with Steve on since Joss Stone. Diane's talent is true and deep. These are trying times in the music business but the combination of an amazing talent like Diane with Steve's genius for song creation and promotion is very powerful. Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed.

Major Who has been incredibly busy lately, so much so that we've put out a job ad for an administrator / assistant manager. Taking on another employee is a bold move in these times, but we just can't handle the workload by ourselves anymore. What's really interesting is the flood of e-mails and resumes that have come in since posting the ad. We're overwhelmed with going through and picking out the qualified candidates. The job market must be really tight right now because we're getting a lot of extremely qualified applicants. It's going to be difficult to choose. The primary purpose of the position is to have someone full time to work the catalog and find licensing opportunities for our songs and artists.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Wow- We at MajorWho are so proud of Gene Bowen, Jack Bookbinder, all the Road Recovery staff and mentors and especially the youth of the Crazy James Band, Henry Ittleson Center and the Hawthorn Center youth. The Road Recovery 10th Anniversary Show at Nokia Theatre, NYC, 4/17/08 was a huge success. Its an honor for us to work as mentors with this organization and we encourage everyone and anyone interested in giving a little something back to check them out and get involved!

This show was even more than I could have imagined. There are so many phone camera pictures and references it will take me weeks to sort through, but lets just say that Slash from Guns N' Roses , Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Joseph Arthur, MC5 founder Wayne Kramer, Jakob Dylan, Jimmy Gnecco and OURS, Dennis Leary (who rocked the crowd with 'I'm An Asshole':)), and the unexpected highlight of my evening Cypress Hill's SEN DOG getting the thousands in attendance to Jump, Jump, Jump- ROCKED the crowd hard for four plus hours in honor of Road Recovery's 10th Anniversary celebration. By far the best night out we've had in a long time!! A special thanks to Tom Morello and The Justice tour!

I was also able to hang a bit with some of my favorite people over the course of the evening- including Mary Guilbert whom I have the honor of running around SXSW with along with the rest of the MajorWho/ Fun Palace / Road Recovery crew. When we were in Austin this last March we got the news that Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was the number one download on iTunes after its appearance on American Idol by Jason Castro. A very special moment for a proud mom...

I'll do my best to put together a journal of the evening, but honestly- there were dozens of highlights that we will never forget- including:

Sen Dog of Cypress Hill doing multiple stage dives while backed by Morello, Slash and Farrell during performances of "Insane the Brain" and "Rock Superstar," as well as a version of House Of Pain's "Jump Around,"

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Had a blast with Dr. Steve Greenwell with the Disco Biscuits last night at the Nokia Theater.First song?- 17 minutes long! Stevie may mix up a track for the band- and after seeing 5000 + folks dancing around the theater last night he's ready to rock it! Bring on the hardrives!

We will be at the Nokia again on April 17th for the Road Recovery 10th Anniversary show. It was nice to poke around backstage and listen to this fun jam band from a few different perspectives, especially since we'll be there again this week w/ Slash, Perry Farrell, Jerry Cantrell, Jimmy Gnecco from OURS, Dennis Leary, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer from MC5 and the Crazy James Band for their All Star Benefit Jam. Tickets are still available at Road Recovery.I happen to know some $25 tickets just went on the block- so jump in on a great org that MajorWho supports!NYC Music Producers James Walsh and Sheldon Steiger present MajorWho Media...

In case you were wondering (as I was), a "Lady Finger" is a sweet sponge cake shaped like a big finger. A lady finger is not to be confused - as it often is - with a lady's finger, which is another name for okra.

This blog post was brought to you by the wonderful folks at Wikipedia.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I caught two great shows in a row this past weekend, Mike Doughty at Highline Ballroom on Friday and Dave Grisman (The Dawg!) at Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday. Both shows were fantastic. The trip up to Ridgefield, CT is well worth it - this theater has played host to many of my favorite artists over the past couple of years. I've also really been getting into the Highline lately - becoming one of my favorite clubs in NY.